According to reports, the government has been making last-minute massive but indiscriminate employment into the civil service and promoting many in the service, including some at the peak of their career.
There are also allegations of spurious contract awards and selling of government property to private individuals believed to be close to the government
The outgoing administration of Governor Mohammed Jibrilla Bindow(APC) in Adamawa State has been allegedly making last-minute moves--barely a month to its end-- to make things difficult
for the incoming administration of Umaru Fintiri which is from the opposition Peoples Democratic Party(PDP).
According to reports, the government has been making last-minute massive but indiscriminate employment into the civil service and promoting many in the service, including some at the peak of their career.
There are also allegations of spurious contract awards and selling of government property to private individuals believed to be close to the government
However, the Governor was said to be making these desperate moves in collusion with the Adamawa State House of Assembly. The house, with the exception of a few, was said to be rubber-stamping every hasty move made by Bindow.
The House on April 9 confirmed the appointments of chairmen and members of Adamawa State Civil Service and those of House of Assembly Service Commission.
The confirmation followed separate letters sent to the House by Governor Bindow and read on the floor by the Speaker, Kabiru Mijinyawa, during the April 9 special session.
According to reports despite condemnation of the confirmation by some members of the house, the confirmation stood.
Speaking against the confirmation, Sunday Peter, who happens to be a member of the ruling APC, same party with Bindow, said the process was flawed.
Giving reason for his stance while speaking with newsmen after the sitting, Peter said . “Section 123 of our rules says you can’t approve a letter from the governor within a day as was done in today’s sitting,”
Peter said some of his colleagues misinformed the speaker on the issue, adding that members like him were not allowed to speak during the plenary, and reiterating that if opposing view had
been allowed, it would have halted the accelerated approvals.
The transition committee assembled by the governor-elect, Umaru Fintiri, highlighted such approvals and acts perpetuated by the executive itself when it said in a statement, “It has come to the attention of the Transition Committee that the out-going administration is embarking on a massive last-minute recruitment exercise without following due process. This is … without regard to the fact that the civil service is already saturated.
“The Committee has also discovered the indiscriminate allocation of land and in-fields to various functionaries of the out-going government which are hurriedly being developed while reliable information are being received regarding hurried withdrawals of funds from government accounts on a daily basis.”
In his own reaction, governor-elect Umaru Fintiri asked that the trend be halted. Fintiri who spoke through one of his aids, Mr. Solomon Kumanga, specified that all undue expenditures and similar acts be stopped for the sake of Adamawa people.
“The governor-elect says Adamawa belongs to all and any action to the contrary would not be condoned. It is therefore the expectation of Fintiri that Governor Bindow reserves sufficient funds in the coffers, settles debts and liabilities for the smooth takeoff of the incoming government,” Kumanga stated.
He similarly quoted Fintiri as cautioning banks against giving arbitrary loans or overdrafts at this time.
Sources said Bindow is still hurting from his defeat at the pools by Fintiri in the just concluded Governorship election hence his determination to make his administration take on a wrong foot in every manner possible.
Fintiri who polled a total of 367,471 votes in the March 9 and March 28 governorship election rerun in the state against Bindow’s 334,995 was accordingly declared winner of the election at the end of collation in the early hours of March 29.
Bindow had been reported to have earlier congratulated Fintiri in a rare display of the spirit of sportmanship before later making a U-turn by filing a complaint on April 17 before the Adamawa Election Petitions Tribunal against Fintiri’s victory at the polls.
Dr Umar Duhu, a former national vice chairman (Northeast) of the APC who is an ally of Bindow had dimissed the legal move as one borne of bad blood.
He said the petition was a product of new revelations concerning the election.
“Yes, the governor congratulated the PDP candidate, but new facts at our disposal signal otherwise about our purported loss. There was over-voting in almost all of seven local government areas,
according to facts obtained from INEC records. We strongly believe that there were massive irregularities in those local government areas, and I can assert that by the time the issues are properly
determined, we will reclaim our mandate,” Duhu asserted.
Solomon Kumanga, Fintiri's aid , also confirmed Duhu's claim.
Kumanga, said on Thursday evening that although Fintiri and Bindow had their political differences and competing aspirations, they had no personal quarrel between them.
“They are one and the same people with more common interests than otherwise. It will be wrong to say there is bad blood between them,” he asserted.